2:1 But false prophets happened to be also among the people, as false teachers will also be
among youĎ, who will be smuggling in sects of destruction, denying even the Master who bought
them, bringing* quick destruction upon themselves. 2:2 And many will be following their
unbridled-lusts, because of whom the way of the truth will be blasphemed.2:3 And in their greed,
they will be merchants of youĎ with fabricated words; to whom the condemnation from long-ago
is not idle, and their destruction will not be slumbering.

2:4 For* if God did not spare messengers who sinned, but threw them into Tartarus {i.e. hell}and
gave them to restraints of blackness, being kept *for judgment; 2:5 and he did not spare the ancient
world, but guarded Noah, the eighth person spared, a preacher of righteousness, when*he
brought* a flood upon the world of ungodly people; {Gen 7:23, 8:1-22}2:6 and he condemned the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, with a catastrophe, incinerating them, having placed them as an
example for those who are about to be ungodly; {Gen 19:1-38}2:7 and he rescued righteous Lot,who
was being subjugated by the conduct of the immoral in their unbridled-lusts 2:8 (for* that
righteous man, who was dwelling among them, was tormenting his righteous soul by seeing and
in hearing their lawless works day by day).

2:9 The Lord knows how to rescue the devout out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous
to a day of judgment to be punished; 2:10 and especially those who are conducting-themselves
after the flesh in the lust of defilement and while despising lordship. Daring and self-willed, they
are not trembling when blaspheming heavenly glories; 2:11 where messengers, (though being
greater in strength and power), do not bring a blasphemous judgment against them before the
Lord. 2:12 But these unrighteous men are like natural unreasoning creatures, having been born*for
apprehension and corruption, blaspheming in what they are ignorant of, and they will be utterly
corrupted in their corruption. 2:13 They will be getting the wages of unrighteousness; those who
are deeming the carousing in the day to be a sensual-delight. They are stains and blemishes,
carousing in their own acts of deception, while feasting sumptuously alongside youĎ,2:14 having
eyes full of an adulteress and an unceasing sin; enticing unstable souls; having a heart which has
been exercised from greed; children of the curse; 2:15 having left the straight way. They were
misled, having followed in the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved* the wages of
unrighteousness; {Num 22:5}2:16 but he had his reproof from his own violation of the law: a
voiceless donkey, having spoken in a human voice, forbade the insanity of the prophet.

2:17 These people are waterless springs and clouds driven by a gale of wind to whom the
blackness of darkness has been kept forever. 2:18 For*while speaking flattering-words of futility,
they entice (with* the lusts of the flesh to unbridled-lusts) those who really had fled away from
those who conduct themselves in error. 2:19They are promising them freedom, when* they
themselves are* bondservants of corruption. For* in what anyone has been succumbed, in this, he
has also been enslaved. 2:20 For* if, having fled away from the defilements of the world in the full
knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and having been again entangled, they are
succumbed in these things, the last state has become worse to them than the first. 2:21 For* it was
better for them to have not known fully the way of righteousness, than to turn away from the
holy commandment given to them after having fully known it. 2:22 But it has befallen to them
asthe way of the true proverb, 'The dog having turned again toward his own vomit,' and the sow
that had fully-washed, to wallowing in the mud. {Prov. 26:11}